


Square B3: Maya Hansen

by SuccubusKayko



Series: FrostIron Bingo 2019 [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Dubious Science, Extremis (Marvel), FrostIronBingo2019, Implied/Referenced Brainwashing, Implied/Referenced Mind Control, Implied/Referenced Torture, M/M, Not Iron Man 3 Compliant, POV Outsider, POV Third Person, Possible Character Death, That escalated quickly!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-02
Updated: 2019-08-02
Packaged: 2020-07-29 16:44:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20085460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuccubusKayko/pseuds/SuccubusKayko
Summary: Maya wasn’t entirely certain what she’d expected Stark to show her, but this was not it. She’d expected a human infected with some kind of alien virus, maybe, despite Stark telling her that the subject was non-human. Or maybe a dead alien that Stark wanted to scan and dissect - which, now that she thought about it, made her even more uncomfortable with the idea.But this?This was not what she expected.Or Maya Hansen visits Avengers Tower to check in on some new research that Tony is doing with the Extremis serum. What she finds in his lab is both terrifying and awe inspiring.Or Tony tries to use Extremis to help Loki break the hold the Other has over his mind. The original hit to the head helped, but there are still times that he is unable to keep his mind free.





	Square B3: Maya Hansen

**Author's Note:**

> The first square for my FrostIron 2019 Bingo card!
> 
> I'm sorry that this is the first thing I'm posting in this fandom, but it's happening. If you've read any of my other stuff, you know that these kinds of things just happen. . .
> 
> The prompt was 'Character: Maya Hansen'.
> 
> I'm sorry?

Maya Hansen was. . . surprised, needless to say, when she was invited to observe a very interesting side effect of her Extremis serum. She knew it’s properties, of course, she’d created it, after all, but the applications of Extremis were so vast and varied that she couldn’t even begin to fathom. That was what brought her to the newly restored Stark Tower - now Avengers Tower - on an unseasonably warm Tuesday morning in spring.  
  
As she passed through the door to the lobby, she was astonished to find that Tony Stark himself was waiting there to greet her. Impeccably dressed in a powder blue suit, he looked almost ready for a press junk-it. She raised a brow at that, watching carefully as he approached. She hadn’t seen him in years and it was strange to see him like this.  
  
This being sober and clean shaven. The last time she’d seen him was almost twelve years ago at a New Year’s Party in Bern. He’d still been deep in the heart of a relapse at the time, it would be no small wonder if he remembered her name at all.  
  
“Doctor Hansen,” Stark offered his hand and a winning smile when he made his way over, “Good to see you again. You have no idea how much I’ve been looking forward to this meeting. I have so much to show you.”  
  
That struck Maya as somewhat odd, considering that she’d seen the majority of his notes on his current project. It was part of her patent for Extremis that she was to be apprised of any and all applications of the substance, lest someone seek to abuse it’s more volatile properties.  
  
She took Stark’s proffered hand and gave it a firm shake, offering her a small smile of her own, “Doctor Stark, I-”  
  
“Tony, please,” he interrupted, not unkindly.  
  
“Tony,” she corrected, “I can’t wait to see your proof of concept. I’ve been absolutely fascinated with the notes and formulas you’ve sent me, so far.”  
  
“Well, Doc, if you’d follow me right this way,” Stark motioned towards the elevators and began walking that way, “We’ll head up to the lab and get started.”  
  
At least that much hadn’t changed, he still expected everyone to do what he said at any given moment.  
  
Asshole.  
  
She pasted a pleasant enough smile on her face and followed him in, half expecting him to go on and on about his most recent accomplishments. It’s what he’d done the last time. She wasn’t left waiting long.  
  
“So, how do you like the Tower so far,” Stark inquired, though his smile had dimmed a touch and his hands were now stuffed in his pockets, ruining the pressed lines of his slacks.  
  
“It’s,” Maya paused and considered how she wanted to respond to that. She hadn’t seen much of it yet, to be fair, but the lobby was nice enough, “It’s impressive, to say the least.”  
  
Stark’s eyes sparkled with glee as he turned to glance at her, “Just wait till you see the lab.” He gave her a quick wink and stepped out as the doors opened.  
  
Odd, she hadn’t even seen him push a button, hadn’t even felt the elevator shift, but there they were, on a completely different floor. She raised a brow as she stepped out, glancing around the space.  
  
For all intents and purposes, it seemed just like any other lab: stark white floor and walls, stainless steel countertops and worktables, equipment for a myriad of purposes. Nothing seemingly out of the ordinary.  
  
But that wasn’t entirely true, exactly. There was something. . . She just couldn’t quite seem to put her finger on it.  
  
What she did notice, however, almost immediately, was that she and Stark were not alone in the lab. She was almost grateful for that. She and Stark may have had their rough patches, but the last thing she needed was to be alone with the smooth talking engineer. Nevermind the fact that she hadn’t gotten laid in a while, Stark was just very good with his hands, as she remembered.  
  
“Let me introduce you to my partners,” Stark said, pulling her from her less than professional thoughts, and lead her through the set of glass doors into the lab proper.  
  
As the doors opened, two heads raised from their respective work. A small framed woman with long, dark hair and pretty brown eyes offered her a quick smile, but returned to the dropper and vial in her hands, obviously in the middle of something relatively sensitive. Maya didn’t take offence, she knew the meaning of patience and diligence.  
  
The second was a mousy haired man, hunched in on himself, shoulders curved in to make himself seem smaller that he was. He looked almost bashful as he set down his instruments and made his way over to them.  
  
“Doctor Hansen, I’d like to introduce you to Doctor Banner,” Stark smiled affectionately, patting the gentleman on the shoulder when he was close enough, and motioned between herself and Banner, “Bruce, Maya.”  
  
Maya couldn’t contain her excitement as she reached out to shake Banner’s hand, “Doctor Banner, I never thought I’d get a chance to meet you. I’ve read all of your papers on gamma radiation and anti-electron collisions. I-Is that why you’re here? Are you attempting to implement Extremis as a cure?”  
  
Stark chuckled at that, interrupting Maya’s ramblings, “Easy there, Hansen. Buy a guy dinner before you start pawing at his big, green sore spots.”  
  
Banner smiled gratefully at Stark and huffed out an exasperated laugh. Stark raised a brow at Banner and a look passed between them that she couldn’t wholly understand. She got the idea that they’d had similar conversations before and that she should let that line of questioning drop. Banner didn’t seem offended, however, and shook her hand, offering her a small, sheepish smile, “No, I’m the closest thing to gamma rays that this project is going to see, hopefully, and not for a cure. Sorry to disappoint.”  
  
Maya did her best to reign in her enthusiasm on the subject; she’d considered using gamma rays on the Extremis project back in ‘99, before Stark had left her that potential fix to the formula. She nodded firmly, appreciating that help now that she knew more about what had happened to Banner back in the early 2000’s, “Never a disappointment, Doctor Banner, just curiosity, but I can’t wait to hear your theories on the bug fix.”  
  
“I’m sure Tony’ll be happy to tell you all about it, but you’ll have to excuse me. I have a lunch date,” Banner practically beamed at that, which prompted Stark to give him a curious glance. Banner shrugged his shoulders and simply said, “Betty’s in town.”  
  
Stark practically crowed at that, his face lighting up with amused fondness as he smacked Banner’s back good naturedly, “Go get her, you dog, you.”  
  
Banner rolled his eyes, though his smile didn’t fade, and made his way out of the lab.  
  
“Old college girlfriend,” Stark explained once Banner was gone, “The flame is still _ very much _ alive.” He waggled his eyebrows and gave her a lecherous wink.  
  
Maya couldn’t stifle her amused snort at that, but Stark didn’t seem perturbed. He lead her over to the woman in the corner, arms open wide to present the little woman, “And this lovely brainiac is Doctor Helen Cho. She’s the lead on the work we’re doing here. Took a lot to win her over.”  
  
“A lot of money and promises, maybe,” Cho sighed, finally setting down her work and turning to the two of them. She snapped off one of her latex gloves and shook Maya’s hand, “Pleased to make your acquaintance, Doctor Hansen, I look forward to our work together.”  
  
Maya smiled a little brighter at Cho, “I’m just glad that my work will be able to help out your research. If you ever have any questions about Extremis, please feel free to call me directly.”  
  
Helen nodded at that, a smile finally gracing her lips, “I will do that, thank you.”  
  
“I love it when a plan comes together,” Stark beamed, all teeth and proud appreciation. He looked between the two of them and said, “So, introductions out of the way. Lunch and a show, anyone?”  
  
“A show,” Maya deadpanned, disbelieving the gal of this man, “Seriously, Tony? I came all this way to help you with this project and you want to catch a show?”  
  
Cho shook her head and pulled off her other glove, “He means a presentation.” Helen leaned in conspiratorially, “There’s no point in arguing with him, he’ll just call up a hibachi chef or something to make it all here if you don’t accept. Banner will be furious. It’s a whole thing.”  
  
“What she said,” Stark chuckled and looked at Maya expectantly.  
  
“Alright, lead the way, then, I guess,” Maya sighed, shaking her head as well. She could feel a headache forming and fought the urge to massage her temples. It was looking to be a long few weeks.  
  
  
  
  
“So, let me get this straight,” Maya huffed, pointing her chopsticks accusingly at Stark, “You found a way to stabilize the Extremis compound, that much I already knew, but you think it could be used to. . . What? Reprogram people’s minds? Some form of brainwashing?”  
  
Stark shook his head and quickly choked down the pot sticker he’d stuffed in his gob a few seconds before. Once he’d swallowed, he raised his hands placatingly, “Not to _ brainwash _ people. I mean, damn, Hansen, I know I have a bad reputation, but shit.” When she only continued to narrow her eyes disapprovingly, he continued on, “Not to brainwash people. Never that. To unravel brainwashing. To get through it and restore the old pathways in the brain to make it,” he gestured wildly with his hands, seeming at a loss for the right words, “Make it fuck off. To get rid of it, Maya, let people that have been screwed up by these kinds of things have a chance at a normal life again.”  
  
“Alright,” Maya muttered, not entirely convinced, “But you do realize that even if the serum works, that it would take literally years just to find enough test subjects to try it on? I mean, the number of people that have been brainwashed has to be a pretty small pool, right? Nevermind getting the resources for animal testing. . .”  
  
“No, no animal testing,” Stark said immediately.  
  
“So you want to skip to human testing? Jesus Christ, Stark,” Maya dropped her chopsticks and curled her lips in a snarl, “What the fuck happened to you? I thought you were trying to do better by humanity and all of that shit?”  
  
“No, not human testing, either,” Stark tried, but when he realized that Maya wasn’t going to just let that go, he sighed heavily, “I have a subject in mind. He’s already agreed to do whatever it takes to get this working. . .”  
  
“But no human testing,” Maya pointed out, looking over Stark dubiously and feeling less and less sure of the man’s sanity.  
  
Doctor Cho slammed her hands on the table, drawing the attention of herself and Stark, “Just tell her the truth, Tony. You hedging around the point is only going to make the situation worse.”  
  
“Bu-, Helen, I can-,” Stark stuttered.  
  
“She’s going to find out eventually,” Cho growled glaring hard at the man, “And she’s already signed the NDA, so there’s no point in keeping her in the dark any longer than you have to.”  
  
“What the hell is going on,” Maya hissed, getting to her feet now, too. This whole meeting was suspect from the start, but now, the way the other’s were talking, she felt like she was going to seriously regret signing the NDA in the first place.  
  
Stark remained flabbergasted, opening and closing his mouth over and over, but never managing to get anything out. He finally closed his mouth with an audible click and turned his gaze to his unfinished bento plate. Maya could see the tension in his face, the way that the light seemed to be sucked out of the room as Stark began to shut down. It was another long while before he opened his mouth to speak again, strained and rough with emotion, “Give me a night.” He looked up at Maya, then, his eyes steeled and ready for rejection, “Please. Just one night, you have to be tired from your flight, anyway, right? Go back to your hotel, have a glass of champagne, go out to dinner, whatever. All on me. Just. _ Please _ . Don’t leave town yet.”  
  
Maya hoped that she was able to keep the surprise from her face as she considered him. He looked so small and broken in that instant. A desperate man trying to find a cure for something that wasn’t even supposed to be possible.  
  
Something about the situation struck her, then.  
  
Whatever it was that Stark hoped to gain from her help, from her serum, it wasn’t for _ himself _ . It wasn’t for the name or the glory or notoriety. This was personal. This was for someone that Tony Stark _ cared _ about.  
  
She wondered how she didn’t realize it sooner, after everything she’d read in the papers and in articles online about Stark hermitting himself away after the invasion in New York. Whatever this was, this meeting and this need to have her on his team for this project, it was something _ serious _ .  
  
Cho had sat down at some point during her musings, probably realizing that she didn’t have any sway over the conversation anymore. The ball was firmly in Maya’s court now and the room was filled with the tension of Stark’s unanswered pleas.  
  
Maya took a step back from the table and picked up her purse. She could see the way that Stark’s shoulders slumped, defeated and certain that her actions spoke for her. She was at the door to Stark’s private office before she’d even realized, but, as she made to turn the handle, she felt a sharp tug of guilt in her gut.  
  
Fucking, _ Stark _ .  
  
She didn’t turn back, instead opting to just mumble into the door, “You have until noon tomorrow, Doctor Stark, and I want all of the information and details you have. No skirting the subject, no secrets, no bullshit. I went through that with Killian already and I’m not going to do it again. I want to know _ everything _ , or I hop on a plane tomorrow evening and go back home.”  
  
The room was silent for what felt like hours, but was probably only minutes, and she was turning the handle when the reply came.  
  
“Noon tomorrow,” Stark whispered. He sounded choked up and she didn’t dare to glance back at him, then, certain that she would find tears in his eyes. She wasn’t a people person, she had never been able to handle when people cried, it wasn’t something she was equipped for. It was why she kept to her lab and her plants. “If you don’t hear from me by noon tomorrow, your trip home will be paid in full and you’ll never hear from me again. I promise. Thank you.”  
  
Maya nodded once, waited a moment to see if there was anything else, then left. As the door closed behind her with an audible click, she was certain that she wouldn’t sleep that night, not with the image of Tony Stark looking so damned downtrodden dancing in her head.  
  
  
  
The clock on her night stand read 11:30am. Her bags were packed up, her ID and return ticket were all organized in her purse. She was dressed, had eaten breakfast, and a cab was waiting downstairs to take her to the airport, but there she was. Waiting.  
  
Stark had said noon.  
  
Maya wasn’t even sure if she had imagined the look on Stark’s face, or the way that his words caught in his throat when he _ begged _ her to stay - and that had to be her imagination, right? Tony Stark didn’t _ beg _ for anything. If he wanted something, he just threw money at it until he got it.  
  
Right?  
  
Besides, why would he even _ need _ her for this project? He already had access to the serum, he’d figured out how to stabilize it, to keep it from blowing people up, _ and _ he had Doctor Banner and Doctor Cho on his team for this. What the hell did he even need her for? What the fuck was his game? What about this project was _ so _ important that he needed her for it?  
  
The night before, she had been sorely tempted to just leave town, to go back to her little lab in Fresno and get on with her fucking life.  
  
But, Stark had said noon.  
  
She glanced over at the clock again and scowled when it read 11:53am.  
  
That was it, she was done.  
  
She had a plane to catch at two o’clock and she’d be lucky to get to the airport and through security at this rate. She stood up, grabbed her things, and hurried down to the street to meet her cab.  
  
What she wasn’t expecting, however, was for Stark’s personal driver to be waiting for her with a sign. A sign that read ‘Doctor Maya Hansen’, in bold blocky letters. She squinted her eyes at Hogan and pulled her phone from her purse. No missed calls. No messages. No emails.  
  
She glared at Hogan as she approached, her grip on the handle of her suitcase almost painful, “I seriously hope you’re here to take me to the airport, because I have a plane to catch.”  
  
“Sure thing, Doc,” Hogan said, shrugged, and opened the back door for her.  
  
Maya climbed into the back seat and clicked her seatbelt in place, glaring at Hogan while he closed the door and put her bags in the trunk. She stared down at her phone again and almost didn’t notice when Hogan got into the front seat and started to pull out into traffic.  
  
In fact, she didn’t even realize that the partition between the front and back seats was up until it started to roll down and Tony Stark was sitting right there in the front passenger seat.  
  
“So, here’s the thing,” Stark began, but quickly ducked out of the way as Maya threw her phone at his big fucking head.  
  
“You. Crazy. Fucking. Asshole,” she hissed through clenched teeth, “What? Are you fucking kidnapping me now?!”  
  
“No, no,” Stark winced, waving his hands as though that would somehow prove his innocence, “Not kidnapping! Never kidnapping!”  
  
“Then what the fuck is this,” Maya puntuated her sentence by kicking the back of his seat.  
  
“Ok, so, this doesn’t look good, I’ll admit it,” Stark hurried, “But I swear I’m not kidnapping you, in fact, if you want, we’ll take you to the airport right now. Happy, take us to the airport.”  
  
“Alrighty, Boss,” Hogan chirped, maneuvering the car so he could head back the other way.  
  
“There, see, not kidnapping,” Stark pointed out unnecessarily.  
  
“What. The Fuck. Do You Want,” Maya was ready to take a swing at him, her finger curled tightly into fists. Knowing her luck, she’d just end up breaking her hand on Stark’s hard head.  
  
“Ok, so, here’s the thing,” Stark began again, quicker this time, the words tumbling out of his mouth as fast as he could catch a breath in between, “I can’t tell you what’s going on because I don’t know.”  
  
“How do you not know what you’re working on,” Maya growled and she was certain she’d broken skin as she dug her nails into her palms.  
  
“Because I know what I’m _ trying _ to do,” Stark sighed, scrubbing a hand over his face and scraping his nails through his goatee, “But I can’t tell you what it is, because I don’t understand it. I have _ literally _ never seen anything like this before.”  
  
“Then tough shit, Stark,” Maya huffed, slamming herself back into her seat, “I told you that if you couldn’t tell me everything, then I was going home. I don’t have time for your shit.”  
  
“Look,” Stark said, looking at her seriously, his eyes steeled once more, not unlike the day before, “I can’t explain this to you, because I don’t know what I’m looking at. I don’t have all of the information on this. You created Extremis to reprogram the brain to accelerate healing, right? That’s what we need here.”  
  
“Extremis already does that on it’s own,” Maya responded, not even bothering to look Stark in the face anymore. Instead, she turned to glare out of the window, ignoring the fact that she could clearly see the outline of Stark’s reflection in the tinted glass, “You already fixed the bugs in the compound, so it’s not going to blow up whoever the fuck you’ve conned into testing it. Banner has biomechanics and chemistry and Cho has neurological, biological, and psychological degrees. You’ve literally got your bases covered here. What the fuck do you need me for?”  
  
Because that was the question here, really. What the fuck did Stark _ need _ her for.  
  
“You _ made _ Extremis,” Stark urged, “You know, better than anyone else, how it works in the human body. You also figured out how to reverse it. So, with that reasoning, you _ should _ be able to figure out how it would work in a non-human body, right? And how to reverse it, too.”  
  
“You said no animal testing, so what the fu-,” Maya stopped herself mid-sentence and turned with a start to stare into Stark’s eyes, “The subject isn’t human, but isn’t an animal.”  
  
Stark’s brows rose up and he nodded as she reasoned it out, “If it was artificial intelligence, you wouldn’t be this worried about the safety of the subject in question. You could always save a backup or rebuild them.”  
  
Stark opened his mouth to argue, but she waved a hand at him to keep quiet, “Bacterial or anatomical subjects wouldn’t be this big of a deal. It would either interfere with the serum or it wouldn’t, there would be little to no danger now that the compound for Extremis is stable.”  
  
Stark looked gobsmacked as she leaned forward in her seat and looked at him all the harder, “So, the only other instance of non-human life on Earth in recent years. . . Was during the invasion last year. . . Stark, does this have something to do with the invasion?”  
  
Stark seemed almost relieved, his shoulders sagging and his face relaxing as she puzzled it out. He didn’t speak, but he did give her a firm, wide eyed nod.  
  
“Alright, so,” Maya was almost at a loss for words, the weight and absolute enormity of the situation finally settling heavy on her shoulders. She leaned back and let her head fall to the headrest, staring up at the ceiling of the car while her head spun. No wonder Stark had been so shady about all of this. If anyone found out. . .  
  
“Does the militar-”  
  
“No, no one but the five of us and the subject know anything about this,” Stark rattled off immediately, “And no one else _ can _ know. Not yet.”  
  
“And you can’t tell me anything else about the subject,” Maya sighed, feeling an almost tingling anticipation in her fingers as her body relaxed against the buttery soft leather seat. Now that she had a better idea of what she needed to do, her brain was able to switch back to work mode and the challenge this would assuredly turn out to be.  
  
“I can’t tell you,” Stark confirmed, but there was a new determination in his gaze as she turned to look back at him again, “But I _ can _ show you.”  
  
  
  
  
  
The drive back to Stark - _ Avengers _ \- Tower was relatively quiet, no small miracle with Stark in the car. Once she’d agreed to have a look at the subject, to get a better idea of what she’d be working with, Stark had turned back in his seat and stayed quiet. Her things were still in the trunk, which she figured would be taken care of at some point, so it wasn’t as if she couldn’t still leave if she didn’t like the look of things.  
  
In fact, it seemed that both Stark and Hogan were fully prepared for her to beat feet the moment she got a look at the subject in question. The fact that they seemed _ ready _ for her to cut and run, that they were prepared and willing for her to leave, helped to allay some of her fears. Stark had been kidnapped a few hundred times in his lifetime, so it only made sense that he would be almost violently opposed to the idea.  
  
Or so she kept telling herself, anyway.  
  
They pulled into Stark’s private garage, piled into the elevator, and suddenly they were in the lab again. Maya still marveled at the technology at Stark’s fingertips, but she managed to tamp down the urge to comment on it. No need to blow air up Stark’s ass. He was already too full of himself. That she was even _ here _ was proof enough of her appreciation for his work, so she let that fact speak for itself.  
  
The lab looked much the same as it had the day before, the work tables were tidied up a bit, though Banner and Cho were both noticeably absent.  
  
And there was the fact that she was starting to get that strange feeling again. She still didn’t quite have words for it. It wasn’t a noise or a smell. More like a feeling. Like she wasn’t supposed to be there or. . .  
  
She glanced over to Stark, who was looking at her pointedly. He had one brow raised and seemed to be waiting for something to happen. She took another look around the room, studying everything a little harder, but still came up with nothing.  
  
“Are we just going to stand here, or,” Maya made a ‘hurry the hell up’ motion with her hand and returned Stark’s unimpressed stare.  
  
“Just wanted to see if you were going to notice or not,” Stark shrugged easily, his posture easing significantly. Maya hadn’t even realized that he looked tense, “But that’s fine. That just means that the safety protocols are working.”  
  
Maya was about to ask what the hell he was talking about when he turned and pushed open a door. A door that hadn’t been there a second ago, but that she couldn’t have possibly missed otherwise. She blinked a few times, just to make certain that she was seeing things correctly, but there it was. Clear as day. A dark wooden door, contrasting against the stark white of the walls around.  
  
“Perception filter,” Maya asked, taking a few hesitant steps toward Stark and his secret door, “I thought that was just a sci-fi thing. I mean, I knew that you had some pretty serious tech patented, but this is something else.”  
  
Stark nonchalantly rolled one shoulder, simply said, “Not my work,” and disappeared inside.  
  
Now _ that _ had her interest piqued. Stark had no problem admitting when another’s work was good, or to laud it over others’, but he almost never used other people’s tech unless he’d first put his hands all over it and turned it into something barely recognizable. Maya couldn’t tamp down her curiosity any longer and she nearly tripped over herself to see what was on the other side.  
  
Maya wasn’t entirely certain what she’d expected Stark to show her, but _ this _ was not it. She’d expected a human infected with some kind of alien virus, maybe, despite Stark telling her that the subject was non-human. Or maybe a _ dead _ alien that Stark wanted to scan and dissect - which, now that she thought about it, made her _ even more uncomfortable _ with the idea.  
  
But this?  
  
This was _ not _ what she expected.  
  
Because just inside that door was. . .  
  
An apartment. A normal, almost mundane apartment.  
  
She was almost disappointed by that knowledge.  
  
“You have a _ perception filter _ to hide your _ shag pad _ ,” Maya asked in disbelief, because it _ was _ and ordinary, mundane apartment, even if it was as lavishly decorated and furnished as she’d expect from someone with Stark’s kind of money.  
  
“Ah, not _ technically _ too far off,” Stark responded idly as he toed off his shoes and nudged them to the side of the door. There was another pair of shoes there, she noted, that were decidedly bigger than Stark’s own, though still well within humanoid range.  
  
“Take your shoes off, if you don’t mind, he gets crazy when I track in mud,” Stark instructed, then padded along in his trouser socks across the living area. Before she could even open her mouth to ask who the fuck he was talking about, Stark was calling through the apartment, “Honey, I’m home.” He chuckled at his own joke and cast a quick wink Maya’s way, before turning just out of site. She could still hear his voice clearly, however, “Babe, Doctor Hansen is here.”  
  
She awkwardly stood in the doorway for a moment longer, but Stark’s voice was getting farther away. She sighed heavily and slipped off her shoes, closing the door behind her and checking over her shoulder a few times to make sure it didn’t disappear from this side, too. It didn’t, which helped her relax a little more.  
  
She made to follow after Tony, but he was returning already, his light footsteps and his far too cheerful voice getting closer by the moment. She opted to just have another look around the room, figuring that she might be able to find other things hidden by the perception filter, now that she knew it was a possibility. It wasn’t until Stark popped back into view that Maya even registered that there was another voice and another pair of footsteps moving along with Tony.  
  
She turned to face them, half expecting to find either a little green man with oversized feet or some other alien stereotype. She wasn’t prepared at all for the alien standing beside Stark to be the selfsame man that had lead the invasion of New York. She also wasn’t prepared for him to be so damned pretty.  
  
Sure, she’d seen some blurry footage on the news and some even fuzzier screencaps from someone’s phone, but they certainly didn’t do the ma-alien any justice. He was somehow just. . . more than all of that. He was tall and slender and pale, almost the polar opposite of Stark, standing with his hands folded behind his back. With long, dark hair, piercing green eyes, and thin, pursed lips, he had that air of cool, calm superiority that some people were into, his face carefully blank, his posture neutral and about as non threatening as a person could look. So, she could see the appeal, certainly, but _ this alien had attacked New York _ .  
  
“Okay,” Maya managed, probably looking as dumbfounded as she felt, because she couldn’t honestly think of a single thing to say right then.  
  
“Would you believe me if I told you it wasn’t him,” Stark supplied, looking sheepish.  
  
Maya took a deep breath and shook her head slowly in disbelief, before swiping a hand back through her hair, “I feel like this story is going to be a long one and after everything you’ve put me through over the last twenty-four hours, I think I deserve a drink.”  
  
Stark snorted with laughter and she was almost certain that she saw the corner of Space Invader’s lips twitch up in some semblance of a smile. She wasn’t entirely certain why that notion set her nerves at ease, but whatever, she’d take it. The tension in the room had faded some and things felt a little less. . . oppressive.  
  
“Doctor Maya Hansen,” Stark introduced, inclining his head towards Maya, “This is Prince Loki of Asgard.” Stark made some elaborate, sweeping gesture toward the man in question, which said man only quirked an unimpressed eyebrow at.  
  
At least she wasn’t the only one that was tired of Stark’s antics.  
  
“Do I have to call him ‘your highness’? Because I will seriously walk out of that door,” Maya huffed, though there was no heat in it. In fact, she found herself all the more intrigued, because this was a, albeit strange and possibly dangerous, once in a lifetime opportunity.  
  
“Loki, will suffice, Doctor, as it is my name,” the man responded, inclining his head congenially, then casting a wary eye at Stark, “Regardless of what Anthony may have told you.”  
  
“Babe, I’ve told you before, nicknames are a sign of affection,” Stark babbled.  
  
Maya cut in before Loki could make any kind of rebuttal, raising her hand to shut them both up, “Drink. Now.”  
  
  
About an hour and twenty vodka martinis later, Maya was finally feeling somewhat stable again, less shaky and unsure of herself, despite the alcohol making her legs feel like jello. Stark and Loki had explained themselves and the story went something like, ‘Fell into a pit, got abducted by evil aliens that tortured him until he did what they wanted, used some magic stone thing to take over his brain and gave him a magic disco stick to do the same to others.’  
  
Apparently ‘cognitive recalibration’ was what they called it when they literally knocked some sense into someone’s head. Pretty term, but still basically bashing someone in the head, and apparently the only person strong enough to knock the god’s head straight was Banner, or the Hulk as it were. That was sort of a terrifying thought in and of itself, of course, but Maya found herself just accepting the facts of it, the alcohol and her analytical logic brain taking over to keep the data straight and separate from her id. Because fear was useless in this situation. Whatever happened, happened and she had no control over that. ‘Que sera sera’, or however that saying went.  
  
The heart of the conversation, however, was that no matter how many times they managed to knock Loki out of his mind control, it never seemed to stick. He would have days and days of clarity, then suddenly he would be back to receiving orders, from this ‘Other’, and trying to fight Stark and Banner. They’d somehow managed to Loki proof this apartment, apparently through Loki’s own abilities - magic was a bullshit explanation as far as she was concerned, but she didn’t really have the time to focus on that - and he was relatively safe and contained inside. It didn’t stop the signals, though, apparently, or there would be no problem.  
This was why Stark had called Maya in, apparently, to test and study the effects of the newly stabilized extremis serum on the ‘god’. The crux of the problem, however, was that standard compounds and chemicals, that would work on the human body, had little to no effect on the Asgardian. Stark had originally considered that it may just be a matter of metabolism, but apparently that theory had been written off as inconclusive. They had injected and fed the Asgardian quite a few chemical cocktails, but regardless of what they tried, nothing seemed to have an effect on him. It didn’t even seem to appear in his bloodstream to begin with. Loki seemed to be convinced that his body was invulnerable to ‘Midgardian’ - apparently that’s what Aliens called Earth people - medicines.  
  
With their story told and Stark having apprised her of all of the things they’d tried already, Maya now understood what she needed to do. She still wasn’t certain that she wanted to accept the task, but she was beginning to feel like she had to. Maybe it was the alcohol talking, or her sense of humanity, or her scientific mind itching for a puzzle yet unsolved. Whatever it was, she was ready to have a look at the data the other three doctors had compiled and to run some tests of her own.  
  
“Alright,” Maya said simply, looking between the two and seeing matching looks of shock and confusion.  
  
“‘Alright’,” Stark asked, his voice having gone up an octave or two, as though he couldn’t actually believe what he was hearing.  
  
“‘Alright’,” Maya affirmed with a casualness she didn’t entirely feel, but she was chalking that up to the alcohol making her dizzy, “I’ll help.”  
  
“ _ Shit _ ,” Stark breathed, eyes wide as he slumped back into the couch cushions, “ _ Alright _ . ** _Okay_ ** . . . ** _Shit_ ** .”  
  
“Is there a problem, Anthony,” Loki murmured, his rich, posh accent enhancing the tenderness in his words. He even reached over to gently take Stark’s hand and wound their fingers together.  
  
It took Stark a moment to shake himself from his stupor, “N-no, not at all. I just. . . I just wasn’t sure that Maya would accept.”  
  
“Thanks for that, I guess,” Maya rolled her eyes and leaned more comfortably in her seat, “Look. I’m not saying that I can rebuild the formula for you, but I’m willing to spend more time looking through everything you have on this. If I think it’s possible, though, and that it will help more than hurt, I’ll try.”  
  
Stark looked at her for a long moment and she could see the glint in his eye the moment he opened his mouth, “Doctor Maya Elizabeth-”  
  
“That’s not my middle name-”  
  
“Hansen, I could fucking kiss you-”  
  
“I would really rather you didn’t-”  
  
“You most certainly will not,” Loki growled, narrowing his eyes at Stark. He seemed just as surprised as Maya that they shared the same sentiment and, as he turned to catch her gaze, a proper smile curled his lips. He chuckled softly and Maya snorted her own amusement.  
  
“I believe that we will get along just fine, Doctor,” Loki mused, “If you can manage to deal with Anthony’s antics for the duration of your stay.”  
  
“I think I’ll be just fine with that,” Maya snickered, giving the Asgardian a mockbow, “Thank you for keeping him in check, _ your majesty _ .”  
  
Loki gave her a mischievous grin at that, turning to Stark and muttering, “I quite like this one, Anthony. Do see that you do not pester her overly much with your ramblings.”  
  
Stark placed a hand over his heart, putting on an heir of incensed heart break, “I would never!”  
  
That got them all cracking up and Maya was able to let go of her previous misgivings. Everything would be just fine. Or so she told herself.  
  
  
  
  
The data that Doctor Banner and Doctor Cho were able to gather on the biological makeup of Loki’s body was probably the single most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. From his bone density - much higher than even the most healthy human despite his size - to his blood cells - able to replenish themselves faster than anything should be able to - to his fucking hair follicles - absolutely ridiculous, really, it should be illegal to have such good hair.  
  
It was no small wonder that nothing the other doctors had tried would work; Loki was a living, breathing, walking, talking marvel of modern science! It was bullshit, really. She was almost tempted to ask how it was even possible, but she was intuitive enough to realize that, if the Asgardian knew himself, he probably would have volunteered that information a long time ago.  
  
After going over all of the facts, and comparing her notes and hypotheses with theirs, she was finally able to come up with a plan of attack, so to speak. Using a handful of blood samples - coerced out of the Asgardian by Stark. She didn’t even want to know how. - and a staggering amount of trial and error on said samples, she was able to come up with a viable formula to alter the original extremis biological coding.  
“I’ve got it,” Maya cheered, knocking her chair over and nearly dumping her coffee all over her notes, “I fucking got it!”  
  
It took her sleep-deprived brain a little longer than it should have to realize that she was in the lab alone. “Well, fuck you guys, too,” she grumbled to herself, snapping off her gloves and dropping them in the trash. She splashed some cold water on her face and grabbed her new phone out of her pocket, - the old one had shattered when it hit the floor boards in the car a few days ago and Stark had given her one of his patent pending ones - snapped a picture of the formula and the slides she’d been working on and texted them to Stark. She added a ton of excited emojis, for good measure, because she was tired and couldn’t be bothered to type actual sentences. It probably didn’t make any sense, but whatever. She was done for the night, no need to stick around longer than she had to.  
  
Maya muttered to herself when she was tired, speaking aloud to remind herself of the things she needed to put away and grab before she left.  
  
“Alright, slides put away safely,” she murmured, closing the sample drawer, “Check. Notes filed. . .” Yup, got that done. . .  
  
“Purse, phone,” she slipped out of her borrowed lab coat, grabbed her things, “Call a cab, ‘cause fuck hailing one this late. . .” She dialed the number and put it up to her ear, slinging her purse over her shoulder. The line rang and rang and she had to force her eyes open to keep from being lulled to sleep by it. “Coat, Maya,” she cursed at herself as she turned to throw the coat into the wash bin. The line connected as she turned for the door out of the lab.  
  
“Carey Ground Transportation, this is Anne speaking. Will you be travelling locally or out of the city?”  
  
Maya blinked slowly, trying to get her brain to wake up, because she was almost certain that she hadn’t opened the lab door. It was closed when she walked by a moment ago. . .  
  
“Hello? This is Anne from Carey Ground Transportation.”  
  
“Ah, sorry,” Maya shook her head hard and tried to focus back on the “Yes, I need a ride from Stark Tower to St. Regis hotel on East 55th, please.”  
  
“Yes, ma’am, and would you like that car as soon as possible?”  
  
“Yes, please.”  
  
“May I get a name, please?”  
  
“Maya Hansen,” Maya murmured, slipping through the door and closing it behind her. She waited until the magnetic lock clicked closed to turn for the elevator.  
  
She ran right smack into something solid. Solid enough that she probably would have broken her nose if she didn’t have her phone held at such a strange angle. The woman on the phone was asking her something else, but she ignored her in favor of staring up at the person blocking her exit.  
  
Loki looked down at her, his blue eyes narrowed into slits, a mischievous smile curled his lips and showed off his perfect white teeth. The smile was almost cruel, but she couldn’t really focus on that right now, because. . .  
  
“Oh, shit,” she squeaked, her voice thready and shaking as she followed the line of his gaze down to her hip where long, pale fingers curled around the hilt of a knife. “Oh,” she breathed, staring blankly at the spot where the blade of the knife was buried in her gut, “That’s not good. . .”  
  
Maya noted that her phone fell from her fingers and clattered to the floor, the woman on the line shouting to ask if she was alright. She probably should have shouted, or something, but she got the feeling that it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. She licked her suddenly dry lips and swallowed hard, turning her gaze back up to Loki’s face, “Wha-Y-you. . .”  
  
And then the Asgardian twisted and she did shout, then, because the pain was unbearable. She felt as the blade was tugged from her side and suddenly she was falling, feeling confused and frightened and not really sure what was going on. Why? Why was he. . .?  
  
Hitting the ground was a distant feeling, as though it were happening to someone else, she felt as her head bounced off of the floor, but it was muted.  
  
Loki loomed over her, that cold, cool gaze unwavering and his lips moved, but the sound came too late, like bad english dubs to old foreign films, “Thank you for your cooperation, Doctor.” She felt herself nod, her eyes wide, but the lights in the room were fading out, narrowing in on the alien standing over her, “Rest well.” 

**Author's Note:**

> References for this fic:
> 
> https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Vita_Radiation  
https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Hulk  
https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Bern  
https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Maya_Hansen  
https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Extremis  
https://www.carey.com/


End file.
